#alabama music

[nugothrhythms]

"Baron" by Warrior, Alabama-based goth rock and blackwave act Ritual Blood off of 2022 release Blessed Moon

[daddysmusicblog]

[mywifeleftme]

187: Phosphorescent // Muchacho

Muchacho Phosphorescent 2013, Dead Oceans (Bandcamp)

I thought Muchacho was a masterpiece when I first heard it ten years ago, and it’s never really slipped in my estimation. We’re far enough now from the early ‘10s to have our own personal senses of what has and has not lasted—the water level has risen and the mountaintops have become islands. Muchacho is the soundtrack to the wanderings of a mystic with decidedly clay feet, someone whose eyes have been burned from staring too long at the sun in search of God, brimming with sweetness and a fearful need who’ll nonetheless disappear on you without notice for months at a time. A terrible man to date (circa 2010 anyway), in other words, but one with the magnetism that comes from living intensely, as though music, love, bacchanalia, and the soul are matters with real stakes.

According to singer-songwriter Matthew Houck, the songs arose after returning from a tour and finding his personal life in ruins: “lost the place, lost the girl, lost my mind.” And while depicting yourself on an album sleeve surrounded by multiple women in various states of undress isn’t the greatest mea culpa I’ve ever come across, as an evocation of the state of freedom and fragility that comes when the bottom drops out, Muchacho is captivating. Houck uses ‘Hej’ (sounds like ‘hey’) as his own pet name for God, and borrows the old mystical poetry trick of couching his lyrics as simultaneous addresses to an absent lover and to the divine. There’s a sense of surrender throughout, whether to the thrill of the drive (“Ride On/Right On”), dissolution (“Terror in the Canyons”), or the whirlwind (“A New Anhedonia”). A lot of the language has the taste of Bible leather, but at bottom, Muchacho’s weary vibe can be summed up in the words of its lurching title track:

“I found some fortune, found some fame I found they cauterized my veins Hej, I've been fucked up. And I've been a fool But like the shepherd to the lamb Like the wave unto the sand I'll fix myself up. To come and be with you.”

Houck’s plaintive moan and a shimmering fiddle loop that makes time feel simultaneously like it’s hurtling forward and suspended in place have given Muchacho’s best known track, “Song for Zula,” a long afterlife in soundtrack licensing, but there’s something (inadvertently, I think) subversive about a song with “Zula”’s caged, vehement grief turning up on a show like Superstore. What to make of a nostalgic sitcom montage on the importance of finding moments of reprieve at your workaday job being set to a piece that concludes with the words, “And I could kill you with my bare hands if I was free”? That’s what happens when you let a song out into the world—but with any luck a few have followed its silver line back to Muchacho, and found themselves a shade more debauched and enlightened for the trip.

187/365

[intheholler]

yet another queer from the appalachians (the foothills down in 'bama, but still!) just chiming in to thank you for this blog. I ran away from that area over a decade ago now and have been missing it sorely. by chance, do you have any recs for good youtube channels, books, or other things about/by folks from the appalachians?

appalachian alabama what's up!!

i so have some recs!

okay first up is adeem the artist who is uncomfortably underrated so i'm gonna say a little more on them. they're a nonbinary pansexual musician from eastern tn and they make amazing folk country that is commentary on appalachian culture, and their experiences growing up here. some fav songs of mine are asheville blues, i never came out, and my personal favorite 'fuck you' to modern country for exploiting our culture, i wish you would have been a cowboy

josiah and the bonnevilles are another favorite a friend put me onto. "i am appalachia" makes me cry and i'll admit that openly. will always always rec crooked still for their appalachian folk covers/murder ballad covers. literally every song. just all of them

as for books: imo the big three. what you are getting wrong about appalachia by elizabeth catte is a must read. appalachian reckoning: a region responds to hillbilly elegy is another, and hill women by cassie chambers

in a sea of SpOoKy ApPaLaChIa bullshit on tiktok, there is one appalachian account that i delight in the most. andiemarire is a gem

there's just from the top of my head though (which is very shallow these days, as yall may tell by my absence). pls reblog if y'all have more!

[nataliebeauty]

New here, down for naughty chat and fun

Free to DM 🥵

[ethicaldelrey]

okay so today I'm like really pissed off and I really need to rant even though probably no one's gonna see this.

but I absolutely hate the new tiktok ethel cain fans and how they're so pissed and grossed out about her new album title as if she doesn't have a whole EP named "Inbred" and i will admit i did find out about hayden on tiktok because I heard it was the best album ever and what do yall expect?? for me to go outside dig a hole find a UBS and listen to the album?

also i hate how she's also getting popular because of the it ends with us movie like I think hayden does deserve popularity and legacy but for only for the people who understand her and her work. and there's a special place in hell for the people who think ethel ands isaiah's "relationship" was love. like bye 💀💀 even hayden herself said he wanted to kill her from the start

and the people who compare hayden and lana, yeah they both talk about the americana aesthetic and shit like that. but they're on way different levels of americana. hayden portrays it in a southern way and lana portrays it in a rich sugar daddy way. and i love both hayden and lana but they are not the same even though I long for a collab between the two of them I hardly ever think they actually would.

[ibetittering]

FREAKING OUT THE MUSIC IS BACK I'M SO HAPPY

[goldfishwithablowtorch]

Listening to different beast after legendary because ✨️spotify free✨️ and I can't stop laughing because

"If I fight these monsters is it you I'll find..."

"LET'S CUT THE CHARADE YOU ARE NO WIFE OF MINE" *violent ass horn*

And for a second I was just like "uuummmmmm buddy that's your son" I'm dying help💀💀💀

[yourwizardofaus]

Elvis during his evening show in Huntsville, AL, on September 6, 1976.

[moonstruation]

Ethel Cain, south alabama (god's country demo)

[midlandcountrymusic]

[augustaaaa]

𝑬𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒍 𝑪𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒏 𝒚𝒕 𝒚𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒅𝒂𝒚♡

[asmileworthahundredlies]

[ethicaldelrey]

God loves you but not enough to save you

[trans-musicians]

The Official Bard of Baldwin County (she/they)

Another favourite from the submitter:

Spotify | Apple | Insta

The Bard is a folk artist from Alabama, USA. Her songs explore gender identity, growing up in the southern United States, and bugs.

FFO: The Moutain Goats, The Moldy Peaches, Laura Jane Grace, John Prine, Field Medic, Pat the Bunny

"I started listening to her after going to a small show where she was one of the openers. She was so amazing and powerful that the main act couldn’t even compare (in my opinion)." - @mountain-dewitt